Term 3 letter 2016
S3/4SM da Vinci
Sharon Moloney
Friday 29th July 2016
Dear Parents
Welcome back to term 3. Can you believe we are already half way through the year? I had a lovely break, with a trip to
Adelaide to attend the National Literacy Conference. It was an absolute pleasure to be listening to speakers discussing
current academic research on the teaching of literacy and I have come back with some great ideas to support the
teaching and learning at our school. It was also reaffirming to hear that our school is well on track with the current
theory and practice. It reinforced just how amazing Turner School is!
Term 3 is always such a wonderful term at school. The children are very settled into our routines, friendships are well
underway, confidence is growing and the weather will start warming up again soon. We are thrilled to have our STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Festival beginning in week 4 and going through to week 5, which
coincides with National Science Week. More information about this is further down in this letter. Book Week follows
our STEM Festival. During week 6, Norma will host the Book Fair in the library where the children will have the
opportunity to purchase books from the fair. We will look through the available books in our library session and create
wish lists. If you would like your child to purchase from the fair, please send in money during week 6 and we will help
them make that purchase. Alternatively you are most welcome to come into the school and go to the book fair with
your child. More information about opening times will be sent home closer to the date. Week 7 brings National Literacy
and Numeracy Week where we will have a parent activity happening during this week. Please look in the newsletter
closer to the date for more information on this. Week 8 will be our Learning Journeys where you are invited to come in
to our classroom and your child will walk you through their learning. These are a lovely opportunity for you to sit with
your child, allow them to talk to you about their learning achievements and for them to show you all their amazing
learning. More information about these will go home closer to the date.
ILPs
It was a pleasure to meet with you most at the end of last term to review your child’s ILP and share their learning
successes. I am extremely proud of each and every child in our class and their achievements so far. Their hard work and
perseverance is certainly paying off! Your child’s updated ILP has been written and will come home for you to read and
sign very soon. Can you please ensure you return the signed ILP so we can place an official copy on your child’s file.
Please make sure you return your child’s portfolio and USB. We will continue to add more wonderful examples of their
learning throughout the rest of the year.
STEM Festival – STEM for Humanity
The theme for this year’s STEM Festival is STEM for Humanity. We are really excited about this theme and it links
beautifully with our school focuses on the General Capabilities from the Australian Curriculum of Intercultural and
Ethical Understandings. We have already started the term looking at creativity and ideas with a super-funny and rather
cute video from Kid President. He has his own YouTube Channel and has some great ideas and videos. The one we
watched, titled “how to be an inventor” was about him as an inventor and his ideas. You can watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75okexRzWMk
The theme for 3/4 during the STEM Festival is about recycling, sustainability and how we can use Science, Technology,
Engineering and Maths to support the world’s sustainability. We start with a visit to Questacon on Wednesday 10 th
August. Notes went home last week. Please let me know if this did not arrive and I will send another one home.
Alternatively a copy of the note is on our school website. We will be attending a show about natural disasters which will
be a great start to STEM for Humanity.
Over the 8 days, our class will be working on designing, creating ideas, building and experimenting on ways to help
people. We will also have people from the fields in STEM come in to talk to us as well. It is such an exciting time and we
are already counting down the days. Over the next few weeks, in the lead-up to STEM, we will be working with S3/4KW
on a sculpture which represents Humanity and STEM which will be displayed in the playground. Please pop in over the
festival to see us in action!
Inquiry Learning
Did you know the Australian Curriculum also looks at “Science as a Human Endeavour”? This is the way we want
children to see science fitting into their own world, as a way of problem-solving, as way of making sense of our world
and how humans can understand the impact and affect of their actions. The Australian Curriculum focuses on 2 strands
– the nature and development of science and the use and influence of science. Our STEM festival, having the theme
“STEM for Humanity”, as well as our big science inquiries sit perfectly within our programs to support this part of the
curriculum. Ask yourself what impact science has in your life. That’s the understanding we want our children to develop
as well.
This term our major inquiry is also science-based. It was a pleasure to see just how much the children enjoyed our
science rotations last term so we will be sticking with this structure for this term as well. Our science focus for this term
is chemical sciences with the year 3 students inquiring into how states of matter can be changed by adding or removing
heat in their inquiry “Melting Moments”. Our year 4s will be inquiring into natural and processed materials, the physical
properties and how these properties influence their use in their inquiry titled “Material World”. We will again join with
our mainstream buddy class as well as David’s 3/4 Curie for science each Tuesday, with the year 3s working with David
and the year 4s with 3/4 Leonardo.
We will be also inquiring into the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and their host city – Rio! We will follow Australia’s
achievements, wonder about the sports, athletes and Brazil. Opportunities such as these make great authentic links for
our learning. We might even send some fan mail to some of the athletes!
English
This term we will continue our focus on the audience and purpose for writing. It is such an important component of
developing children as writers. As adults, we all write with an idea of who we are writing for and why. It was interesting
to hear during one of the keynote speeches at the conference I went to talk about building writing identities. The
presenter spoke about how adults view themselves as writers. She wondered if we see ourselves as writers. Most adults
see themselves as readers, often talking about the book they are currently reading with others however most of us
rarely talk about what we are currently writing. Do you see yourself as a writer? What do you write? How regularly do
you write? Why do you write and for whom? We need to make this understanding of why we write and for whom
explicit to our children. My own children are currently watching me write this letter and are filled with these questions!
Please talk with your child about what you are writing, be it a shopping list, a birthday card, a letter or an email and why.
This week we started reading “The Jolly Postman” to help us begin thinking about the different ways of writing. This is a
terrific book which tells the story of a postman on his daily postie route delivering letters to characters from fairy tales.
Each character receives a letter, which the authors have included in envelopes. The children thoroughly enjoyed reading
the letters (both formal and informal), advertisements, invitations, story books, birthday cards. We will be looking at
these types of writing, who they were for, why they were written and what elements they include. We will then be
writing our very own types of mail which will be posted in our class Post Office (made from a Federal Election Voting
booth!) This term we will also be developing an audience wall in our classroom filled with photos of people we can write
to. Can you please send in a family photo we can add to our wall. If it’s easier to email one to me, my email address is on
the bottom of this letter.
We will also be focussing on writing to describe which is linked to our science inquiry this term. We will be looking at
technical vocabulary (words that are specific to the subject) and other language features such as adjectives, active
verbs, nouns and pronouns. This term our literacy coaches will be hosting a writing workshop. This workshop will walk
you through the way we teach writing and will give you some strategies to support you when helping your child at
home. Information about this workshop was in the week 1 newsletter and will be again next newsletter.
Our spelling will link to our writing and reading programs. This term we will be focussing on four different spelling
strategies – visual (what the word looks like, does it look like another word I know, ), sound (what are the sounds I can
hear in the word), checking (finding the word in the classroom or in another source) and meaning (what is the base
word, what language does it come from). We will continue to explore sounds in the books we read to continue building
on our letter / sound relationship knowledge.
In reading workshops, we will be working on our decoding skills (reading the words) as well as our comprehension of
what we are reading, hearing and seeing. Our main focuses will be on making links with our prior knowledge and
building on our schema. Put simply, schema is the basic building blocks of knowledge or a way we organise knowledge.
Our understanding of each concept in the world we know (objects, actions, and even abstract concepts) has its own
building block. We make meaning of the world around us by linking new learning to these building blocks. We support
children to understand this through talking about what they already know about a concept within the book we are going
to read and recording their thinking through mind maps or key words. We are building an understanding that we all
have different prior experiences and bring a different perspective on how we relate to the book. Other comprehension
strategies we are working on are visualising (creating a mental image) and asking questions to clarify understanding. We
are also continuing on building reading strategies such as sounding out, building sight word knowledge as well as
building our understanding of letter / sound relationships through rich children’s literature and simpler texts.
Home Reading
I really need to stress the importance of reading with your child each night. This might be you reading to them, reading
together or your child reading to you. Please be sure to log any home reading in your child’s reading log. This helps me
see the bigger picture of your child’s reading and allows me to monitor what they are reading, what they like to read
and where I need to take their reading next. There have been a number of picture books from our home reading pile
sent home that are yet to be returned. Please look at home for these books and send them back in to school. I will then
send more books home for you to enjoy with your child.
Maths
We have started Maths this term looking at chance. With a very high chance of our Athletics Carnival being postponed
from week 1 (which did eventuate!) we decided to ask the question “what was the chance?” We wondered what chance
meant and looked at the words we use to discuss chance – impossible, possible, might, could, will, certain and
definitely. We will continue to look at chance throughout the term in real world contexts as they arise.
Our other focuses for Maths will link to our science inquiry as well as the Olympic Games. We will be measuring length,
time, mass, capacity and temperature – during experiments as well as within the context of the Olympics, with athlete’s
times, distances and the weight the weightlifters are lifting! Data will also link directly to science and the Olympics. We
will be keeping a close eye on the medal tallies of the countries and collecting this data! Mapping will also be a feature
as we read directions and locate places on maps. Our Post Office will also be a wonderful opportunity for us to continue
our focus on money as we buy and sell stamps.
Within all these areas of Maths, number features heavily. We will be reading and writing numerals, counting as well as
adding in all these areas. We will also focus on each child’s individual learning goal in number through fun games, asking
questions as part of an inquiry.
Physical Activities and Health
We really enjoyed our athletics carnival today – a bit of Olympic spirit at Turner! I was so proud of each child having a go
at all the activities.
This term we will continue our sport rotations each Monday afternoon. Your child has selected the sport they are
interested in trying. We have some children learning tennis skills, netball and even Ultimate Frisbee. These sports will
continue for the whole term so specific skills are targeted then put into action in a real game situation.
Our hydrotherapy day is Tuesday. If your child attends hydrotherapy, please send them to school with their swimmers
and towel in a plastic bag. All children will again participate in our bikes program. We focus on balance, coordination of
pedalling, steering and watching where we are going as well as road safety. Circus will continue with myself and Roger
Rosser each Friday afternoon.
This term we will be focusing on kicking as our fundamental movement skill. We will learn the basics of kicking and use
this skill in game situations with our mainstream buddy class. In these games we will also be focusing on team work
skills and how to be a good teammate.
In Health this term we will focus on the way we can promote health in our school and how health is promoted in the
community. We will look at advertising and what the “junk” food companies are doing to try and get us to eat their
food! We will also look at resilience, our emotions and how they make our body react as well as looking after our own
emotional health and ways we can seek help from adults when things go wrong.
As we begin to head into warmer weather (hopefully!) we need to be safe in the sun. The SunSafe Policy has hats back
on in August. Please be sure to pack your child a broad brimmed hat.
Music - Giselle Nathan
Giselle Nathan will take our class for music each Thursday afternoon. In music sessions this term we will begin
introductory chord playing on our school xylophones to accompany some of our well-known songs. We are working
towards an engaging performance arrangement to accompany a community song at a school assembly.
Visual Arts - Sally Visser-Marchant
Our Visual Arts will be taught by Sally Visser-Marchant each Monday morning. In Art this term the children will learn
about famous Dutch artists such as Piet Mondrian and M.C. Escher and study how they used STEM techniques in their
art making. They will combine drawing and printmaking techniques to create their own coloured collage inspired by
Mondrian and then continue with artworks incorporating tessellations, as seen in Escher's work. Creating a mobile will
further develop skills in kinetic sculpture. During the Olympic Games they will be inquire into the flags that represent
different countries and make their own flag.
Library - Norma John
We were excited to complete the Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge last term. Your child’s certificate should be here
soon which we will pop into their portfolio. This term our library day continues to be each Monday with our buddy class,
3/4 Leonardo. We will continue to read the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) shortlisted books this term and
be Junior Judges prior to the winner’s announcement at the end of week 5. The children will look at the Book Week
theme of Australia: Story Country and write their own Australian story or that of someone in their family. These ‘Turner’
stories will be recorded onto QR codes and be part of a display during Book Week. Visitors to the CBCA Children’s Book
Seminar to be held during Book Week will be listening to them. Our Book Fair will take place in Week 6 during Book
Week. Book Week books will be sold before and after school and during lunch time during this week.
Once again, if you have any questions, concerns or just want to pop by and see what we’re up to. Our classroom is
always open!
Regards
Sharon Moloney
[email protected]
S/34SM da Vinci Class Timetable
Monday
Before school
morning
session
boys trebles
Art
lunch time
Tuesday
girls trebles
boot camp
Wednesday
boot camp
senior choir
Thursday
Assemblies
Music
Friday
boot camp
living skills
chess club
middle session
library
recess time
afternoon
session
Hydrotherapy
circus
3/4 Team Dates for your Diary
Term 3 2016
Please note: These dates are correct as of time of printing this letter. Please regularly check the website as
well as the fortnightly newsletters for any changes and additions. Whole school events are on the term
overview calendar in the week 1 newsletter and on the website.
Week 3
Wednesday
3rd August
Week 4
Wednesday
10th August
Week 8
Wednesday
7th Sept
Week 9
Wednesday
14th Sept
Senior Assembly – hosted by 3/4 Leonardo and S3/4 da Vinci – 2:10pm in the senior hall
All 3/4 classes to Questacon for the day
Senior Assembly – hosted by 5/6 – 2:10pm in the school hall
Year 4s to Mugga Lane Recycling Depot